Spin Cycle is Escape Collective’s news digest, published every Monday and Friday. You can read it on this website (obviously) or have it delivered straight to your inbox.
Spin Cycle
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Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
They say Christmas comes earlier every year, but 2024 seems to have really dialled up the marginal festive gains and arrived almost too promptly, at least in the UK. Examples: December 1st and already Nativity and The Holiday were on terrestrial television and multiple houses down the street have their Christmas trees up.
You can find similarly expeditious planning in the cycling world, as Visma-Lease a Bike got their end-of-year party on over the weekend, and cyclocross continues to ramp up its chaotic nature early in the season. Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish, meanwhile, continue on the winter sun bromance of the year.
Sing your Aert out 🎤
Fresh off the broadcasting of his musical debut a month ago, Wout van Aert is back for round two of Song 2, the Blur tune he performed on Belgian television (slide to the second panel for the video).
At what appears to be some sort of Visma-Lease a Bike Christmas party, Van Aert is all smiles, loving his new party trick, which crucially does not require the memorisation of too many lyrics.
We’re going to be honest, though, the crowd could be doing more to liven things up. Come on guys, this is Wout van Aert doing karaoke! What more do you want!
Not so average rider salaries 💰
Some interesting figures have come out of the UCI Congress last week in Nice, with Gazzetta dello Sport obtaining figures that show an all-round growth in budgets and salaries across the sport, and particularly the men’s WorldTour.
Meanwhile, the total budget of the women’s WorldTour has grown from €33m in 2022 to €70m in 2024, and the total men’s ProTeam budget (17 squads) has gone from €99m two years ago to €159m. Do say: That’s a lot of adhesives and HR software sold then! Don’t say: Is it just my simple European mind that can’t comprehend ‘big number go up’ is always good and not something laced with trepidation?
Wiggo opens up 🙏
Bradley Wiggins has had a tough time of it recently with his bankruptcy proceedings taking place in the public eye. Moreover, you have to credit his willingness to talk openly about the difficulties he’s faced since retiring and more broadly throughout his life, as it probably helps others to hear someone as successful as him can also go through hard times.
Speaking on The High Performance Podcast recently, Wiggins revealed Lance Armstrong had offered to pay for the Brit to go for a week-long therapy course in Atlanta, GA. Wiggins declined the initial offer but is considering changing his mind.
“Now I’m thinking about talking to him about it,” Wiggins said. “I wanted to get back to something that seemed okay without talking to anybody … I just didn’t want to go in there and say, ‘just fix it.’ Now I know I want to talk to a therapist about it.”
Aware of the reaction some people will have to his association with Armstrong, Wiggins offered a fairly rounded view.
“I don’t condone what he did. We all know what happened. But it’s a bit disproportionate when you see what some people get away with … he’s got a heart,” Wiggins explained. “He also has an ego as big as a house. That’s why he won seven Tours. Well, not in the end.”
Feed Zone 🥖
💼 Stephen Cummings has been announced as a new sports director for Jayco-AlUla. Quoted in the announcement, Cummings said “this team has a strong reputation for professionalism and dedication” as well as “it’s an opportunity to be part of a culture that values growth, resilience and results.” We’re choosing to read between the lines there.
🇳🇱 Bodine Vollering, 21-year-old sister of Demi, has signed a two-year contract with VolkerWessels, previously named Parkhotel Valkenburg where Demi began her career.
✍️ Strava KOM-hunter Jack Burke has told Wielerflits he’s been approached by four different WorldTeams, with a view to signing a contract for next year.
📺 Jonas Vingegaard’s mother-in-law Rosa Kildahl will appear in the New Year’s special of the Danish version of Taskmaster (Stormester), a lighthearted TV challenge show.
Cycling on TV 📺
Tuesday December 3rd – Thursday December 5th
No live racing …
Friday December 6th
Track
UCI Track Champions League, London – Round 4
(14:00-18:00 ET/19:00-23:00 GMT/06:00-10:00 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max 🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
🇮🇪 Cyclocross chaos of the week 🇮🇪
A big weekend for Ireland between a general election and a cyclocross World Cup. Hard to think of a bigger weekend really.
While Michael Vanthourenhout and Lucinda Brand came away with the victories, we’re always more interested in the chaotic clips that inevitably emerge from literally any cyclocross race.
What begins as a clip that should really have the Benny Hill theme playing in the background then quickly becomes less slapstick and frivolous as a rider clatters into the back of a stumbling Thibau Nys, who falls to the floor in pain.
Nys continued for five laps before climbing off when the pain in his ankle became too much. To add insult to injury, someone then video’d an official having to bite off his race numbers. Cyclocross is a cruel and unforgiving sport.
The only good news? At latest report, Nys’ injury is not said to be serious and he will join his Lidl-Trek road team for a training camp in Calpe, Spain before returning to Belgium for the December 15 Namur World Cup round.
And finally …
The bromance of this off-season continues apace, with Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome trying on some traditional garb in Taiwan. Show us someone doing a better Blue Steel than Mark Cavendish in the year of our Lord 2024 … that’s right, you can’t!
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“I spent a week on Gran Canaria recently for a bit of R&R after a busy season,” Mike Haynes writes, attaching today’s featured laundromat. “Whilst wandering through the streets of Arguineguín, I spotted a laundry and couldn’t resist taking a couple of photos!”
As always, we are accepting your laundry photos (especially ones with the doors open so we can Photoshop riders inside the drum) to star in Spin Cycle. Either send them via the Discord or shoot me an email: [email protected]
Until next time …
That’s all folks! Thanks to Mike Haynes and Tom C for contributions to today’s edition and a big thank you to all of you who have signed up as Escape Collective members. If you haven’t, there is no time like the present. To smooth the process just click this link here and hit the Join Today button in the top right of the page.
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Spin Cycle
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